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Obama ‘confident’ Netanyahu will not influence Congress on Iran deal

In an interview with Thomas Friedman, Obama addresses Israel’s rejection of Iran deal; Netanyahu: Israel is not bound by this deal with Iran because Iran continues to seek our destruction. We will always defend ourselves.

Obama and Netanyahu 2014 (AFP)

In an interview with the New York Times, President Obama stated he was confident that Congress would approve the final deal on Iran’s nuclear program finalized on Tuesday with world powers. With reports of several Republicans already to reject the deal, Congress has up to 60 days to review and approve the deal.

In Obama’s interview with Thomas Friedman, Friedman summed the areas of the interview relating to Israel as “Does this deal prevent Iran from breaking out with a nuclear weapon for the next 10 years and is that a better outcome for America, Israel and our Arab allies than any other alternative on the table?”

Obama addressed Israel’s rejection of the deal and stated that Prime Minister Netanyahu would “perhaps thinks he can further influence the congressional debate and I’m confident we’re going to be able to uphold this deal and implement it without Congress preventing that.”

On Prime Minister Netanyahu’s criticism he stated, “We’re not measuring this deal by whether we are solving every problem that can be traced back to Iran, whether we are eliminating all their nefarious activities around the globe. We are measuring this deal — and that was the original premise of this conversation, including by Prime Minister Netanyahu — Iran could not get a nuclear weapon. That was always the discussion. And what I’m going to be able to say, and I think we will be able to prove, is that this by a wide margin is the most definitive path by which Iran will not get a nuclear weapon, and we will be able to achieve that with the full cooperation of the world community and without having to engage in another war in the Middle East.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke to the press immediately following the announcement of the deal, stating that, “By not dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, in a decade this deal will give an unreformed, unrepentant and far richer terrorist regime the capacity to produce many nuclear bombs, in fact an entire nuclear arsenal with the means to deliver it. What a stunning historic mistake!” and that “Israel is not bound by this deal with Iran because Iran continues to seek our destruction. We will always defend ourselves.”